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Sir Edwin Henry Landseer

Sir Edwin Henry Landseer, RA (7 March 1802 –
1 October 1873) was an English painter, well known for his
paintings of animals—particularly horses, dogs and stags. The best
known of Landseer's works, however, are sculptures: the lions in Trafalgar
Square, London.

Life and
significance

Landseer was something of a child prodigy whose artistic talents were
recognized early on; he studied under several artists, including
his father John Landseer, an engraver, and Benjamin Robert Haydon, the well-known and
controversial history painter who encouraged the
young Landseer to perform dissections in order to fully understand
animal musculature and skeletal structure.

Landseer's life was entwined with the Royal Academy. At the age of just 13, in
1815, he exhibited works there. He was elected an Associate at the
age of 24, and an Academician five years later in 1831. He was
knighted in 1850, and although elected President in 1866 he
declined the invitation.

Landseer's popularity in Victorian Britain was considerable. He
was widely regarded as one of the foremost animal painters of his
time, and reproductions of his works were commonly found in
middle-class homes. Yet his appeal crossed class boundaries, for
Landseer was quite popular with the British aristocracy as well,
including Queen Victoria, who commissioned numerous
portraits of her family (and pets) from the artist. Landseer was
particularly associated with Scotland and the Scottish Highlands, which provided
the subjects (both human and animal) for many of his important
paintings, including his early successes The Hunting of Chevy
Chase (1825–1826) and An Illicit Whiskey Still in the
Highlands (1826-1829), and his more mature achievements such
as the majestic stag study Monarch of the Glen
(1851) and Rent Day in the Wilderness (1855–1868). Laying Down The Law (1840) satirises
the legal profession through anthropomorphism.

Saved (1856)
Landseer's paintings of dogs were highly popular among all classes
of society.

So popular and influential were Landseer's paintings of dogs in
the service of humanity that the name Landseer came to be the official name
for the variety of Newfoundland dog that, rather than
being black or mostly black, features a mix of both black and
white; it was this variety Landseer popularized in his paintings
celebrating Newfoundlands as water rescue dogs, most notably
Off to the Rescue (1827), A Distinguished Member of
the Humane Society (1838), and Saved (1856), which
combines Victorian constructions of childhood with the appealing
idea of noble animals devoted to humankind—a devotion indicated, in
Saved, by the fact the dog has rescued the child without
any apparent human direction or intervention.

In his late 30s Landseer suffered what is now believed to be a
substantial nervous breakdown, and for the rest of his life was
troubled by recurring bouts of melancholy, hypochondria, and
depression, often aggravated by alcohol and drug use.[1] In the
last few years of his life Landseer's mental stability was
problematic, and at the request of his family he was declared
insane in July 1872.

Landseer's death on 1 October 1873 was widely marked in England:
shops and houses lowered their blinds, flags flew at half-staff,
his bronze lions at the base of Nelson's column
were hung with wreaths, and large crowds lined the streets to watch
his funeral cortege pass.[2]
Landseer was buried in St Paul's Cathedral, London.

Miscellaneous

Landseer was rumoured to be able to paint with both hands at the
same time, for example, paint a horse's head with the right and its
tail with the left, simultaneously. He was also known to be able to
paint extremely quickly—when the mood struck him. He could also
procrastinate, sometimes for years, over certain commissions.

After his death, Landseer left behind three unfinished
paintings: Finding the Otter, Nell Gwynne and The Dead
Buck, all on easels in his studio. It was his dying wish that
his friend John Everett Millais should
complete the paintings and so Millais did.[3]